Thirty Kisses: Unconventional First Kiss
by Muffles
Summary: Written for the thirty kisses community. Set a few years in the future. Zelgadis and Amelia are engaged, but they've never kissed before. One day they decide to try it out, only to realize that they have no idea what they're doing.


Author's notes: The theme for this one is actually theme 30, kiss! I never thought that I'd get to this theme for a while, but then this idea popped up. This story is set a few years in the future, Zelgadis and Amelia are engaged, but they've never kissed. For some reason that's so easy to imagine. I'm also tired of seeing people write fics where, and this doesn't just apply to Amelia and Zelgadis, two characters have a first kiss and it's so wonderful and magical and passionate and all that. Even if the characters haven't kissed anyone before and would actually most likely not know what they were doing. o.O; So, this is just some silliness on how I think that Amelia and Zel's first kiss might happen. I suppose it's also sort of a reflection of my own awkwardness when it comes to writing romance.

Disclaimer: Slayers is owned by Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi and others that are not me.

* * *

In a private section of Seyruun's great library two people sat at a table, each with a book in front of them. One of them was Princess Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun, the other was her fiancé, Zelgadis Graywords. Nothing disturbed the soothing quiet of the library, save for the occasional sound of a page turning. 

Amelia stared at the same page in the book that she had been staring at for the past ten minutes. This was one of her favorite books and it always managed to interest her no matter how many times she read it… except for this time. It wasn't that the book wasn't interesting anymore, it was just that… she had other things on her mind. She glanced shyly to her right where Zelgadis was sitting next to her, completely immersed in the book that he was reading.

"Uhm… Zelgadis-san?" Amelia broke the silence.

"Hmm?" Zelgadis replied without looking up from his book.

"I was thinking… since we're engaged… shouldn't we be doing the things that engaged couples do?"

"Erm… Like what?" Zelgadis asked even though he thought that he already knew the answer. He actually looked up from his book. Well, they _were_ engaged, they would have to do it someday, after all…

"I mean… Like kissing." Amelia looked flustered as she fiddle with one of the pages of her books, but she was also looking at him eagerly to hear what he had to say.

Zelgadis set his book down and then made quite a spectacle of clearing his throat to avoid having to speak, but eventually he did speak, "Erm… Ah… Well, that is, I suppose so.."

"Great!" Amelia's nervousness momentarily dissolved, but soon returned when she realized that she didn't know what to do next, "So.. Should we just try it sitting down?"

Of course Amelia wasn't the only one nervous, Zelgadis really didn't have any idea of what to do next either. "Uhm… Well…"

Unlike Zelgadis, who showed his nervousness by fumbling for words, Amelia showed hers by rambling on. "No, I don't think that'll work. I mean, they're never sitting down… I mean, people in books and things, that is…" Amelia bolted out of her seat and shoved her chair under the table quickly with a loud scraping sound.

Normally the sound would have irritated Zelgadis a little, but he just nodded numbly, "Er.. Right." He got out of his chair and stood across from her… and they just stood there.

"So, do we just…?"

"Er… I think so."

"So…"

And they just stood there.

Amelia was the one to break the silence again, "This isn't right! Aren't we supposed to put our hands somewhere?"

"Uhm.. I guess so." Zelgadis was now conscious of how heavily his arms were hanging at his sides and how stupid it must have looked. He lifted one of his hands awkwardly, "So where am I supposed to…?"

"Uhm… I'm not really sure. Why don't you try putting your hands on my shoulder? No, that's not going to work. Your arms are all stiff, Zelgadis-san, loosen up! Um.." Amelia tried considering what would be a better position while Zelgadis' hands rested like dead weights on her shoulders.

After a moment of consideration, Amelia thought of something else, "Okay, why don't we try you putting your hand on my back and I'll put my hand.. Hmm…"

Zelgadis followed her instructions and shifted one of his hands to her back… Or rather, what he _thought_ was her back. In all his confusion and embarrassment over the instructions she was giving him and the entire situation he hadn't noticed that he'd actually placed his hand firmly on Amelia's butt.

Amelia suddenly gave a squeak and her cheeks instantly glowed red, "Um… I think your hand needs to be a little higher, Zelgadis-san."

It took a moment for Zelgadis to register what she meant, but when he did he quickly jerked his hand higher to rest on her back. "Ah! Er.. Sorry. It was an accident."

"I know.. Um, you know, on second thought, I don't think this position will work either. Do you have any ideas? Oh! Maybe we could try with my hands on your shoulders and your hands on my waist, like how Lina-san and Gourry-san did it that one time we walked in on them kissing!"

Zelgadis was already embarrassed enough about the current situation without being reminded of something like that, so, needless to say, he started blushing. "I thought we were going to try and forget that…"

However, they eventually did decide that that was the best position, but once they had gotten into position, they still just stood there.

"So… Do you want to go first?"

"No, it's fine. You can go first.."

"No, really, you can go first…"

"No, you."

"No, you."

In the back of Zelgadis' mind he thought that he really should be the one going first. After all, he was older and he was the man in the relationship, so Amelia probably expected him to be the more experienced one. Never mind that he'd never so much as held a girl's hand before until after he met Amelia, let alone kiss one. Never mind that Amelia was probably the more experienced one. She probably at least had fantasies to go by or some experience from practicing on stuffed animals or something. Amelia was expecting him to do this, but still… He didn't want to go first.

"There's only one way to decide this!" Amelia interrupted his thoughts.

"And that is?"

"Rock ,Paper, Scissors!"

Zelgadis sweatdropped, "You can't be serious… That's a children's game!"

"But it'll settle the matter quickly! Come on! The loser goes first… Go!"

Zelgadis sighed and held out his two fingers to represent scissors at the same time Amelia held out her fist to represent rock.

"Ha! The hammer of Justice never loses! You go first, Zelgadis-san."

Zelgadis glared at his 'scissors' for a moment before sighing, "Right, Right…" They shifted back into position, but there was another tense moment in which nothing happened. Zelgadis was painfully aware of how stiff and nervous his body felt and how Amelia was puckering up right in front of him.. And he was supposed to be the one to move first. Finally he managed to bend his neck and move his head downward… but he couldn't reach. Amelia was just too short. He realized that the best way to overcome that would probably have been to crouch down a little and for Amelia to stand on her toes, but right now his body felt stiff and unwilling to move. "Amelia… I don't think this is going to work. Maybe if I sit in a chair and you stand up…"

Amelia cracked an eye opened and mumbled through her puckered lips, "Mmphf?" She relaxed the muscles in her face and spoke again, "But.. That would completely ruin the atmosphere! I probably should be standing on my toes, though… Should we try it again?"

"Fine.." Zelgadis waited for her to close her eyes again before he tried to force himself to loosen up, but before he did, it was Amelia that interrupted him this time. "You know.. I don't think this will work either. The atmosphere, I mean… Whenever I read about stuff like this in books the couple is always bathed in moonlight or something."

Zelgadis sweatdropped, but found his nervousness abating, "Moonlight? It's afternoon."

"Well, bathed in sunlight is good too! Come on, lets go stand by the window." Amelia grabbed his hand and tugged him over to a window not far away where sunlight flowed into the room. Zelgadis didn't protest, he found that Amelia's usual silly attitude was helping him become less nervous about the whole thing.

Once they'd found a nice spot near the window they shifted back into their designated 'position.' Amelia with her hands on Zelgadis' shoulders and Zelgadis with his hands resting on Amelia's waist.

Zelgadis' body didn't feel as stiff as it did before, although he was undoubtedly still nervous, but he felt that now he could manage crouching down a little to get at the right height. Amelia was standing on her toes, holding on to Zelgadis' shoulders to keep from falling over. Zelgadis started to lean in.. but he still wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. He thought that he was supposed to close his eyes, but then he wouldn't be able to see. His eyes had just begun to close when Amelia whispered something. She sounded wistful, but he wasn't really a good judge of that. He pulled back a little to hear what she was saying.

"Zelgadis-san…" She whispered.

"Er… Yes?" For some reason Zelgadis felt the need to whisper too, like it was some sort of secret..

"…Your hair is scratching my face."

Zelgadis pulled back completely, "Is it bothering you?" He certainly didn't sound happy.

"No, no! It wasn't really like that!" Amelia began to wave her hands around frantically, "I mean, it was more like it tickled, really.. But I have an idea! And one to fix the height problem too!"

Approximately twenty minutes later they'd finally completed Amelia's plan. Most of the time had been spent trying to keep Zelgadis' wire-y hair tied back with a piece of strong twine. After many tries, they finally succeeded. Amelia 'solved' the height problem by standing on a stack of books.

"Wow, Zelgadis-san, you look really different! I don't think I've ever seen your left eye before!"

Zelgadis felt almost insecure without a cover of hair to hide his face behind. "Thanks…" He replied dully, "So, ready?"

"Yep! I really think it'll work this time!" Taking that as their cue, they began to shift back into their positions. Amelia leaned forward, no longer having to stand on her toes, but her stack of books suddenly shifted causing her to stumble forward and smack her head against Zelgadis' and then tilt backwards…

By then Zelgadis had a well-developed reflect of catching Amelia whenever she had her clumsy moments, so it didn't take much effort for him to just grab her by the shoulders to keep her from falling. He'd barely felt when she hit her head against his. He was actually more worried if she would end up with a lump on her head from bumping it against his stone forehead.

"Owwie…" Amelia had swirly eyes.

Zelgadis sighed, then tightened his grip on her shoulders so he could hoist her off the unstable pile of books and back onto the floor. "Why don't we just try this again another day?"

"Okay, mommy…" Amelia said incoherently. She began to wobble, and then tipped over, but Zelgadis easily caught her again. "Kissing is certainly overrated." Zelgadis sighed again for the too-manyth time.


End file.
